Keith Hershmiller
Eastern Division

Warriors crush Pats 10-4 on Saturday

Written by Kevin Shaw on

 

Fourteen goals were scored Saturday night as the Moose Jaw Warriors beat the visiting Regina Pats 10-4 before 4,895 at Mosaic Place.

Ten different Warriors scored and had leads of 4-1 and 7-3 at the intermissions in the win.

The Pats had two early powerplays but were unable to capitalize and the Warriors seemed to grab the momentum and walked away with the win.

Martin Rysavy (seventh) intercepts a pass goes in alone on Kieper and is stopped on his first attempt but got his own rebound and popped the puck over the Pats netminder to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead at 3:45.

Ryder Korczak gave the Warriors a 2-0 lead at 13:43 as he fired home a wrist shot low blocker side on Kieper. He received a cross-ice pass from Eric Alarie and made no mistake as he sniped his 21st of the campaign.

Daemon Hunt made it 3-0 as he hammered a one-timer from the point that beat a screened Kieper on the powerplay at 14:43.

The third goal spelled the end of the night for Kieper as he was replaced by Drew Sim.

The Warriors keep pouring it on.

Atley Calvert fed Hunt in front for a quick shot that was stopped by Sim, but he was unable to corral the rebound and Calvert picked up the loose change and converted his 14th of the season to give the Warriors a 4-0 lead at 16:53.

Tye Spencer picked the Warriors defenseman’s pocket and tipped the puck toward Carl Tetachuk in the Warrior goal, Tetachuk tried to poke-check the puck away but misfires and the puck goes through his legs and into the Warrior cage. Spencer’s seventh of the season gave the Pats some life at 4-1 at 17:37 of the opening frame.

The Pats were outshot 15-14 after twenty minutes and trailed 4-1.

Calder Anderson received a pass at the Pats blueline and skated in and whipped a wrist shot past Sim and his glove hand. His third of the season gave the Warriors a 5-1 lead just 1:23 into the second period.

Connor Bedard got the Pats back to within three at 1:55 when he scored his 41st of the season. He won the offensive zone faceoff and the puck got back to Neithan Salame who fired a long-distance shot toward Tetachuk who had troubles with the rebound and Bedard knocked the puck past the Warrior goalie. The goal extended his point streak to 20 games.

Robert Baco with a clear-cut breakaway beat Sim with a simple backhand to score his 12th of the season to give the Warriors a 6-2 lead just a minute later at 2:55.

Majid Kaddoura let a one-timer blast from the point that beat Sim glove side to put the Warriors up by a five-spot. His fifth of the season at 11:02 converted the touchdown and gave the Warriors a 7-2 lead.

Cole Dubinsky one-timed a shot from the top of the circle past Tetachuk to get the Pats back to within four at 16:46. His 18th of the season on the powerplay made it 7-4 in the late stages of the second period.

Despite trailing 7-3 after forty minutes the Pats were ahead 28-25 on the shot clock.

Kieper was back guarding the Pats’ citadel for the start of the third period.

The two-point conversion was completed as Eric Alarie converted on a give and go with Denton Mateychuk at 1:28 of the final frame. His 19th of the season gave the Warriors an 8-3 lead.

Brayden Yager gave the Warriors a 9-3 lead with his 32nd of the season on the powerplay at 8:49 of the third as he finished off a cross-crease pass from Jagger Firkus.

Make it 10.

Firkus finished off a cross-ice one-timer past Kieper who had absolutely no chance on the powerplay at 10:25. His 33rd of the season made it 10-3 with almost half of a period to play.

“That’s 10-4 good buddy!” as many truckers would say.

Braxton Whitehead took the original shot and is able to track down his own rebound to score his eighth of the season to make it 10-4 at 14:31 of the third.

The Pats outshot the Warriors 17-8 in the third period and 45-33 in the game.

Kieper allowed three goals on nine shots in 14:41 of play. Sim stopped 12 of 16 shots in 25:16 of play taking the loss. Kieper returned for the third where he stopped 5 of 8. Overall in 34:41 of action Kieper stopped 11 of 17 shots.

Tetachuk stopped 41 of 45 in the win.

The Pats went 1-for-4 on the powerplay, while the Warriors went 3-for-4.

The Pats entered the game in eighth place with 51 points and ended the night in 10th. The Swift Current Broncos and Prince Albert Raiders both won and leap-frogged the Pats.

Patterings: Connor Bedard left during the first period but returned for the second…Zack Stringer left the game during the second period after he collided with two Warrior players…the three stars Mateychuk (6A), Firkus (1G-2A), and Korczak (1G-1A)…the Pats’ next action is Tuesday, March 22 when they travel to Swift Current to play the Broncos.